Okay, here we go. First whole new chapter of this story since the rewrite. Again, we'd recommend that if you read it before it was posted on JonaBee, it would be a good idea to reread the last few scenes of last chapter, or you shall be confused.

For all of you who just started reading since the repost, or who already read the last few scenes of chapter 1, please enjoy this new chapter and tell us how you felt about it!

Chapter 2: Tactical Bodyguard Action Metal Locker Stupid.

Kaname tapped her foot on the floor impatiently, studying the note in her hand for a moment. It had been left on her door, scrawled in Ranma's untidy hand, and asked her to wait for Sousuke before heading to school this morning. Stopping her foot tapping, the teal haired girl looked down at her watch. "I've only got twenty minutes," she sighed, before knocking on the apartment door for the second time. When it didn't open then, she reached for it, turning the nob and pushing the door open.

As she stepped into the apartment, she could hear voices, which slowly lead her past the kitchen, where there was a bento prepared, and into the living room, where her uncle was pacing in front of a girl that Kaname barely recognized as Sousuke's female form.

She didn't look much different, though Kaname had gotten very few glimpses of her, and only one in the girls school uniform that she was currently wearing. The hair that he wore in a sort of half-ordered chaos was pulled back by a blue hair band, and styled to look almost cute, and she was holding her hands in front of her body, adopting a very proper and feminine mannerism. As Kaname listened to what was being said, her creeped out factor increased.

"Sergeant Sagara, please repeat the objectives that you have been given!" Ranma barked, in a much harsher tone than his niece had ever heard from him.

"I am to act as a bodyguard to specialist Chidori," Sousuke responded, quickly. "She is an expert on the local culture, terrain, and tactical situation, but possesses minimal combat skills. Also, the enemy is not yet aware of my current appearance, so I am to cause as little disturbance as possible, and request Miss Chidori's assistance in maintaining my cover."

"Threat disposal and countermeasures?" Ranma asked, again in that harsh tone.

"All non-immediate threats are to be reported to Miss Chidori and handled after the situation has been assessed by the two of us. If possible without increasing risk, all immediate threats are to be covertly and non-lethally eliminated." Kaname shivered at these words, more than a little disconcerted that her uncle had apparently spoken them earlier, and that someone no older than herself was repeating them now.

She coughed, not really wanting to get any attention at this point, but knowing that she still needed to get to school, and was relieved when Ranma's shoulders loosened and he turned to her. "We're going to be late for school if we don't go soon," she offered.

Sousuke nodded to her before walking past Ranma and towards the kitchen without a word, picking up her lunch box. Kaname threw a 'what in the world was that about' look to the martial artist, which he just shrugged at before she turned and followed Sousuke out of the room.

When the front door closed behind the two of them, Ranma walked over to the couch he'd helped haul in the night before and slumped down on it, letting himself lean back and look up into the plaster of the ceiling.

He was pretty sure, barring a few insane rivals or love interests, that Sousuke would do all right in school, especially with Kaname to keep an eye on him. That, of course, led him to why the boy and his team had been called out over her, but it was a need to know matter, and at the moment, he saw no need to go break into Mithril's secured offices to find out. Besides, when he'd done so to do a background check on them before he'd joined, the security systems had been nasty, and they would probably be much worse now.

Of course, his current employers' interest in his family wasn't Ranma's only problem, and not the worst given what he knew of the organization's usual motives. His current problem was that a member of his family now knew what he'd been doing for the past fifteen years. He'd been relatively sure that he'd kept the secret from even Nabiki, up until now, and Genma had been the only one with even the vaguest idea, but he was absolutely sure that if Kasumi or Akane found out, he'd end up getting instant worried phone calls, and he didn't want to have to deal with that again.

Sitting up and shaking his head clear of his thoughts, the pigtailed mercenary extracted the crumpled ball that had once been his mission orders from his pocket, reading them over idly until the phone next to the couch beeped, and he reached over to pick it up.

"Hey Kage, this is Urzu 2, just giving you a heads-up, the Angel's on her way to school, and we've got her for the day," Melissa Mao's voice echoed into his ear.

"Confirmed," he replied, right before a second voice cut in on the line.

"Hey, that girl next to her's Sousuke?" Kurz asked, surprised. "She's even walking like a girl, how'd you get him to stop marching around like he's got a bayonet up his backside?"

Ranma shrugged. "He learned pretty fast when I explained that not knowing how to cope with his body or move correctly could be a risk in combat. We ended up staying up until three in the morning trying to find places to stow all of the weapons he wanted to carry in the uniform, though."

The line went dead for a moment, before Mao replied. "You know, with Sousuke, that doesn't surprise me in the least," she deadpanned. "Regardless, you've been ordered to report back home for a status update and a few tests, since we couldn't pull Sousuke out of the field."

The martial artist sighed irritably. "At least this time I've got the excuse that I've gotta be back by five, so they can't lock me in the labs again," he grumbled. "Orders understood, I'll head out. Good luck Urzu group, Kage out."

HR.

The tall, black haired man walked quickly down the dark hall, a woman in a labcoat with her hair tied back in a ponytail following him. "If the girl has been cooperative, what's the problem? Hasn't the treatment proceeded as planned?"

"The treatment's worked," the woman said, her statement a little hesitant. "All of her reading say that she's in the Whispered state, and telling the truth about what she's receiving, but…"

"But then what's the problem? I have other things to take care of right now," the man cut her off, as the two came up to a set of double doors.

"I… think you should see this," the woman suggested, still hesitant and knowing how quick the man was to anger. "When you see what she's been saying, I believe you'll understand."

The man rolled his eyes as he pushed the double doors open, entering a large room with a glass pane in the middle, a young girl sitting on the other side of it and looking out at them with wide, brown eyes. Pulling a chair out in front of a desk that ran in front of the glass, the man picked up a microphone and keyed it. "Hey, girl," he barked.

"Yeah," she asked, rather listlessly, her voice carrying from the other side of the glass.

"I need you to answer some questions," the man said, glancing over to a set of readings on a computer screen nearby which, through a few years dealing with the biometrics systems of Arm Slaves, he was able to read as stress, breathing and heart rate monitors. "What's your name?"

"Osaka," the girl responded, again lazily, but not seeming to hesitate.

The man's eyebrow twitched, and he looked up to the top of the readings page, where her real name, Ayumu Kasuga, was listed. "Are you sure about that?' he deadpanned, carefully watching the readings.

"'s what Tommo called me," the girl replied. "She said 'Your new name is going to be Osaka!' So that's what it is."

The man winced as the girl's voice rose several octaves for her last exclamation, and his microphone squealed. "Don't yell like that again!" he yelled into the mic and smirked widely when he saw her wince and hold her ears. When she was recovered, he tried again. "All right," he started. "I'm going to give you some subjects, and you're going to answer what first comes to mind for each of them."

Behind him, the female scientist handed him a cue card with "Interesting answers" scribbled on top, with a bemused expression. Reading the list over, the man stated, "America?"

"Big place with lots of guns, in' it?" the girl replied.

"Remind me to make that my next vacation spot," her interrogator grumbled. "How about the USSR?"

"Former Soviet Union, fell between 1989 and 1991," the girl replied. The man looked away from her, to her vital sign chart, and then back to the woman.

"Is she serious?" he asked, muting the mic. The woman just shrugged. "Well, our former partners are going to be surprised they ceased to exist ten years ago," he growled, before slapping the button back on. "Japan."

"Well, half the country got flooded by Second Impact, 'cept I'm pretty sure Tokyo was part of that, and I ain't had ta swim to school, so I'm not sure about that," the girl confessed, sheepishly.

The man's eyebrow twitched. "Arm Slaves?" he tried one last time, but was beginning to see what the scientist had warned him about.

"Oh, Arm Slaves, those are big robots, right?" the girl started, and the black haired man slapped the button that would mute her voice, just as she continued, "Arbalist is cool, it's got a Lambda… thing, and it fought this big red thing… Behemoth, I think… it danced pretty good."

"I see what you mean," the girl's newest interrogator said, turning to the female scientist. "I don't even know if there's a point in sending her back to headquarters." He grinned, which caused the woman to step back slightly in spite of herself. "I guess we'll just have to find another one."

HR.

"So, what do you think?" Mao asked, right after being sure to flick off the radio to avoid transmitting her question to their new teammate.

"I think that I really shouldn't drink so much," Kurz said, from where he was peering through a telescopic sight next to his commanding officer. "This hallucination's lasted two and a half days solid, now."

The dark haired woman rolled her eyes. "You're not gunna wake up, Weber," she noted. "None of my drunken nightmares are anywhere near this strange. What I meant is what do you think of our new friend over there."

The Urzu group's sniper shrugged dismissively. "Intel, female form's pretty enough, want him outta here as soon as he's done 'training' Sousuke so we can reverse the damage."

"Ah, don't like him then, huh?" The Sgt. Major commented, leaning back and propping her feet up on the surveillance monitors, which wouldn't be used on the target's trip to school. "He doesn't seem so bad for a dedicated spook."

"You mean like the guy who hung around with us for a week and reported all of our most minor safety or procedure violations to command?" Kurz snorted. "We'll see."

"Yeah, but that guy'd be a jerk no matter what division he was in," Mao disagreed.

The blond remained silent for a moment, before muttering, "I wonder what they're saying?"

"Hmm?" Mao asked, straightening and dropping her feet to the floor.

"The target's chatting with Sousuke," the sniper said, adjusting a nob on the side of his scope. "Can't get a good enough look to read their lips."

"It's probably not important," the dark haired woman said, quickly. "Besides, don't you need to get to your A.S. soon so you can cover them?"

"Oh, right," the blond said, backing away from the scope and heading for the door, while Mao concealed a grin.

HR.

"Why are you doing that?" Kaname burst out, as Sousuke's eyes swept back and fourth across the street, and she knew that the redhead would likely turn around and look at something behind them in a few moments. It wasn't actually very noticeable, but she'd been watching the other ever since they'd left the apartment building, and the pattern was starting to become evident.

"I am checking the area for threats," the boy turned girl said, matter-of-factly.

"Right," Kaname mumbled, reminded of why she had been watching Sousuke all this time. "You're seriously some sort of mercenary?" she asked, looking around to ensure that no one was close enough to hear her making a fool of herself. When Sousuke nodded, she shook her head. "But, you're my age, I mean, don't you have to be eighteen just to join the military, or something?"

"I started fighting when I was very young," the redhead said.

"Oh," Kaname said, and things fell silent for a moment, before she continued, "Sousuke?"

"Sora," the shorter girl corrected, almost absently. At Kaname's confused look, she continued, "My two forms have separate identities, since apparently I gave signs of my purpose two days ago, and any association with my normal form in school could compromise my ability to protect you."

"Oh," Kaname said, again. It seemed that she had been saying that a lot lately, but it was the only thing she could really think of. Of course, on the bright side, she had gotten an answer to at least one of her questions, that of why Sousuke was a girl, but given that she had been told he'd only found out about the curse two days ago, he did seem to be taking it disturbingly well.

"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said a moment later, deciding that since Kaname had asked first, she could as well. "I was told by Sergeant Ranma to ask your assistance in modifying my behavior to be less suspicious, could you give me a preliminary briefing before we get to school?"

"Sure, I guess," Kaname started, knowing what she'd heard earlier, but still a little surprised at the request. "And stop with the Miss Chidori stuff, okay? If we're walking to school together, you may as well call me Kaname."

Sousuke nodded, before she suddenly turned her head to the side, just as a loud popping sound echoed through the air. Kaname was about to ask what was wrong when she was tackled to the ground, hitting with a loud "Oof," and the other girl rolled off of her and up to her knees, drawing a pistol from somewhere in her blouse.

"Why the heck did you do that?" the teal haired girl yelled, indignantly, beginning to pull herself to her knees.

"Stay down," Sousuke hissed. "Gunfire."

"Gunfire?" Kaname asked, in a disbelieving tone, but lowered herself back to the ground nonetheless. Taking a quick look around, she noted that the two were a few dozen feet from the school's front entrance, and that no one seemed to have noticed Sousuke's gun, as they were all staring into the yard, where a man in a blue uniform was laying on the ground, holding one leg.

"I don't think it's aimed at us, now put away that gun before someone sees it!" she whispered to the redhead, who reluctantly did so a moment later. As the two got up, and Kaname winced at the slight stinging of a scraped knee, Kyoko ran out of the yard and directly toward them.

"Kaname!" she yelled, before getting closer and lowering her voice. "I told you you shouldn't have thrown that gun in the garbage!"

"What?" the Chidori girl asked, not quite understanding.

"Remember, the one you took off of the girl in the change room?" Kyoko reminded, before she was interrupted.

"You threw away my gun?" Sousuke asked, actually sounding a little offended.

"Oh, you're here too," Kyoko said, laughing nervously as she realized that everything she'd said had been overheard. "Um, Sora, right?"

The shorter girl nodded, but didn't respond verbally, instead turning to Kaname. "Why would you throw away that gun? Not only is it a safety violation, but it was a perfectly functional piece of equipment."

Kaname winced, suddenly realizing why Kyoko had brought that up right at the moment, as she saw one of the school's janitorial staff being wheeled out of the yard. "Can we not talk about this right now?" she asked, nervously.

"I will be asking about this later," Sousuke reassured, internally rather thankful that it would be very hard to trace the gun that had most likely been confiscated back to him.

"Maybe some good can come out of this and they'll cancel school," Kyoko offered, tentatively. When she got a glare from Kaname, she raised one hand. "Hey, he only got a gash across the leg, the bullet didn't actually go in, and a day off would be a good time to develop my pictures." As Kaname and even 'Sora' gave her dubious looks and the bell rang, seemingly to spite her, the pigtailed girl sighed and the three headed into the building.

HR.

Sousuke stood in front of the class, feeling vaguely as though there was a sniper rifle aimed at the center of her forehead. Two days before, she hadn't understood the importance of the situation she now found herself in, her first impression giving her a tactical advantage in social situations, as Ranma had called it, but now she did, and seeing Kaname looking apprehensively at her from her seat in the middle of the class made things many times worse.

The last time she'd felt like this was when holding her first rifle several years ago, and it bothered her greatly. Gulping, she decided to get it over with, and began to speak in a slow, methodical fashion. "Hello, my name is Sora Sagara. My brother and I transferred here from China several days ago, when our parents were assigned to the military base in Nerima, and I am happy to meet you all."

As the class processed what she'd said, the Mithril operative wished very much that she could see instant results, as she would in combat, but somehow doubted that someone was going to slump to the ground with a bullet wound from a simple introduction. "So, is that why your brother acts so weird?" One girl piped up, from the front of the room.

"Weird?" Sousuke asked, confused.

"Yeah, like rattling off the stats of his toy gun, or reading Arm Slave magazines," the girl continued.

Sousuke opened her mouth, but had no idea what to say. She honestly couldn't see anything strange about that. After all, they had asked him what he was interested in, but before she could formulate a response, she was saved. "Hey, that's not very nice, is it?" Kaname broke in. "You shouldn't talk about the poor guy like that when he's not around to defend himself." The girl in the front row blushed, sitting down, and Sousuke nodded to Kaname, gratefully.

"Well, yes," the teacher said, when there were no more questions a moment later. "Miss Sagara, how about you sit in the seat behind your brother's, the second one next to the window there."

Sousuke nodded simply, moving over to the table, though her ears pricked up when she heard her current name being whispered by a few students. She tried to listen and hear what they were saying, but it was rather difficult, as the whispers were being drowned out by the general noise of the classroom.

Frowning somewhat worriedly, she sat in the seat she had been pointed to, and withdrew a small hand mirror to be able to observe the class without looking as though she was doing it. She'd gotten the technique from Kurz, though he'd been slapped when he had been about to tell her some other, apparently useful, ways of using it.

"All right, class. Today we will begin covering the Edo period. now, I'm sure most of you know at least something about it, so let's review..." the teacher began, though Sousuke was only paying her a small amount of attention, and Kaname only a little more.

HR.

Kaname stood, her arms crossed and a dark glare on her face, and unwilling to move. "No way," she said, resolutely, shaking her head.

"But Kaname, it is important that I stay with you as much as poss…" Sousuke started, before the blue-black haired girl shook her head again. "But my mission," the redhead continued again, only to get another shake.

"Your 'Mission' doesn't mean I'm going to let you into a change room full of naked girls, including me!" Kaname snarled, irritably. "Now Gym starting in five minutes, and if I see you in that locker room, so help me, I'll throw a bucket of hot water at you! Got it?"

The shorter girl sighed. "It appears I have no choice," she noted. "I will change in the rest rooms."

"Good," Kaname huffed, right before Sousuke seemed to pull a small, cylindrical object from somewhere and handed it to her. "What's… this?"

"It's a flashbang grenade," The sergeant said matter-of-factly. "The light it emits and noise it makes disorient attackers. Also, if you need me, the noise will alert me to it."

"Uh, thanks?" Kaname hazarded, tucking the small device into one pocket and turning to the door that she had been blocking, entering the girls locker room. Sousuke turned away as well, heading for a nearby washroom, her Gym clothes under one arm. At the moment, she wasn't really sure that coming to school as a girl had been the wisest course of action. It was true that she'd been able to stay closer to Kaname, but that also had something to do with the taller girl's knowledge of at least some of the situation.

In other ways, the day had been markedly more irritating than his first, as she seemed to be talked to much more than he had, and thinking of at least reasonably polite responses that amounted to "I can't talk about myself" was getting tiresome. Along with that, she had found that her current form lent her one, very large, disadvantage. She was short. Ridiculously so, in fact, at approximately four feet and eleven inches, and she'd lost sight of Kaname several times in crowds mostly due to this fact.

She frowned darkly, turning down the hall that lead to the only bathroom she knew of, as she saw a shadowed form flitting around one corner, and looking rather suspicious. Abruptly, she charged after the form, covering the hall in a distance eating run, but the shadow was now gone, vanished into one of the classrooms, and by the time she searched them all, class would have begun and the figure likely escaped.

Turning back to the hall, where her and Kaname's lockers were, she noticed something, creeping up to the small, aluminum locker door. "A slip of paper?" she muttered, poking the tiny fold that poked out of one hinge. Studying the paper intently, she recalled that it hadn't been there when she had gotten her gym shorts. Nodding decisively to herself, the redhead began to prepare.

HR.

"Where the heck is he?" Kaname Chidori muttered, as she stomped down the hall, carrying her gym things over one shoulder. She'd waited through the entire gym class, and Sousuke hadn't shown up. She'd felt a little like she'd been watched, but hadn't been able to see anything. She really couldn't figure it out, actually. The mercenary had been playing the role of a quiet school girl rather well all day, and Kaname had no idea why she would change tactics now.

For a brief moment, the girl let herself think that, just maybe, whatever it was Sousuke had been looking for had happened during gym class and he was off having some John Woo style gunfight off in the bowels of the school somewhere. She couldn't help but laugh then, as the mental image of a male Sousuke, a pistol in each hand, diving through a classroom door and firing while inexplicable doves flew in the background entered her mind's eye.

Her laughing fit abruptly ended, as she caught sight of the lockers, some sort of small assembly of clamps and fishing line hooked onto 'Sora's,' and the girl herself hunkering behind a garbage can. "What the…" Kaname exclaimed, just as the other saw her.

"Kaname, get behind something," Sousuke called. The teal haired girl looked between the redhead and the lockers for a moment, before shrugging and walking over to Sousuke's trash can.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, looking down at the crouching other girl.

"My locker has been tampered with. I would normally pre-detonate the locker, along with whatever has been placed into it, but have been ordered to use more covert methods. I am about to open the locker remotely," Sousuke explained, and Kaname looked down to see her holding the end of a fishing line that stretched back to the strange assemblage of parts on the locker door.

"Have you been setting this up all gym class?" the taller girl asked, uncertainly. At Sousuke's nod, she groaned. "That's just stupid, no one's going to plant a bomb in your locker!"

"You can never be too careful," Sousuke said, looking at the taller girl with a look in her eyes that actually had Kaname gulping. "I would recommend you take cover."

The more normal of the two actually found herself hunkering down behind the trash can with Sousuke before she really realized what was going on, and biting one finger nail as the other held up her hand, tugging sharply on the fishing line. Abruptly, there was a snap from the locker, and the door creaked slowly open. As it did so, Kaname caught herself holding her breath, until she saw the perfectly normal contents within, and the piece of notebook paper jammed into the crack at the hinges.

"You wasted an hour, and a perfectly good gym class over this?" the teal haired girl grumbled, staring daggers at the mercenary, both for the stupidity of the action and her actually somewhat believing it.

"It seemed like a legitimate threat," Sousuke countered. "Besides, why would anyone stick a piece of paper into my locker?"

"It's a note, you…" Kaname started, before biting back her next words and standing, stomping over to the locker. "It says that someone would like to meet you in the back field, and…" the girl's voice trailed off as she realized what the note was, and she snorted. "You've got an admirer! All this over a love letter?" It was at about that point that the stupidity of the situation got to her, and she began to laugh hysterically.

END.

Note: Sorry if the ending paragraph seemed a little non-end-ish, but it was only after getting this far that we realized the next few scenes weren't at all suitable for ending the chapter on, and we would end up having to write another chapter's worth to get there.

This may seem like a good thing, but that also would have meant another week or two of working before publication, which we're sure none of us wanted, so please enjoy this, Kaname and Sousuke's first real day of school together.

Well, there hasn't been any major structural damage, and no one's jumped into a swimming pool from the third floor... seems more peaceful than both of the source continuities, doesn't it?

Anyhow, shutting up. Please R&R.